Beware: HBO Email Scam Is Targeting 'Game of Thrones' Pirates

If you get a professional-looking e-mail "on behalf of Home Box Office, Inc. (HBO)" accusing you of downloading a pirated copy of "Game of Thrones" and giving you 72 hours to accept a settlement offer online -- pull a Hillary and delete that mess!

TorrentFreak recently posted news on the phishing scam, targeting online pirates with fake copyright infringement notices. The scammers are pretending to represent major film and TV companies, including HBO. Apparently the "scheme" is pretty broad, reaching ISPs in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia. Many people realize it's a scam, but some ISPs have forwarded the notices to their customers.

You can see a copy of one of the legit-looking e-mails at TF; toward the end, the scammers write, "You have 72 hours to access the settlement offer and settle online. If you fail to settle, the claim(s) will be referred to our attorneys for legal action. At that point the original settlement offer will no longer be an option and the amount will increase as a result of us having to involve our attorneys." They want you to send a couple of hundred dollars and threaten legal action if you don't.

"Game of Thrones" is the most pirated show, year after year, and it has set records for illegal downloads. So this new scam has led to some confusion, TF reports, since HBO and its piracy monitoring firm IP-Echelon do send takedown notices to "Game of Thrones" pirates. Just not these notices. "The notices are fake and not sent by us. It's a phishing scam," IP-Echelon told TorrentFreak.